The $180 Million Movie Dividing Critics

Welcome to the Monday Roundup!

A weekly bonus edition featuring data-driven culture stories, curated datasets, and recommended reads. Note: Your regular Wednesday essay remains free for all readers.

This week: six original data stories, including Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” streaming surge, the rise of “maxxing,” Digger’s polarizing reception, Warner Bros.’ disastrous year, AI celebrity re-creations, and Paramount’s mountain of debt—plus notable reads and 10 public datasets. Free readers get the first two stories; paid subscribers get everything.

Trend 1: September 21st & the Single-Day Song Spike

Once a year, September 21st rolls around, and subsequently Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” reappears on the Billboard Hot 100.

People are always looking for an excuse to play “September” outside the confines of a wedding reception, so every September 21st, the world collectively fires up this disco classic to celebrate an otherwise unremarkable date.

Since 2017, Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” has repeatedly recharted among Spotify’s 100 most popular songs globally, anchored around its titular calendar date.

This ever-danceable earworm is one of several tracks to experience a massive surge in listenership tied to a specific day, headlining a curious category of annual song spikes that includes Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” on St. Patrick’s Day, “Monster Mash” on Halloween, and “I Gotta Feeling” on New Year’s Day.

While this newsletter frequently chronicles the negative consequences of digital music distribution, this particular ritual is undeniably charming. Streaming has made it easier than ever for millions of people to revisit the same song on the same day.

Trend 2: The Rise of “Maxxing”

Here’s a sentence that’s impossible to take seriously: “Whimsymaxxing” was among TikTok’s top trends this past week. To state the obvious, the term is oxymoronic—optimization and lightheartedness don’t exactly go hand in hand—though I haven’t consumed enough #whimsymaxxing content to confirm this paradox.

Anyway, whimsy is merely the latest trait to be “maxxed,” joining an expanding canon of desirable qualities that Instagram influencers can help you optimize, alongside “looks,” “sleep,” “sardines,” and “fiber.”

The maxxing-sphere stresses an optimal approach to one’s personal care, whether it’s bowel movements, a chiseled jawline, or a rockin’ beach tan. The maxxing concept isn’t new; these trends have existed on social media for half a decade. What is new is mainstream awareness of this suffix, as reported on by news outlets, and its subsequent adoption by normies (for lame concepts like AI “tokenmaxxing”).

The beginning of 2026 saw an abrupt uptick in maxxing-related news coverage, spurred by the very public crash-out of looksmaxing influencer Clavicular, who committed several crimes and then continued live-streaming about jawline sculpting (by chewing gum, of course!).

Underlying this social media trend is the belief that an ideal standard of beauty, health, or professional success exists—and that some influencer has cracked the code, offering a simple, repeatable formula for achieving it.

The future of this social media suffix is exceedingly predictable: it will gain mainstream adoption until it is eventually rendered uncool, and then these hashtags will fall out of fashion. What will endure, however, is the timeless nature of human insecurity—and a legion of hucksters eager to exploit those anxieties under a new brand name (and a new hashtag).

Trend 3: Is Digger the Most Polarizing Movie of the Decade?

Most films generate an inexact consensus among critics and audiences. Within each group, a general agreement emerges about whether a movie is “good” or “bad.” But every so often, a film becomes something of a Rorschach test, provoking reactions so wildly different that you wonder whether everyone watched the same film.

Such is the case with Digger, which opened to a paltry $20 million worldwide against a $180 million budget (and an additional $100 million for marketing). Whatever its artistic merits, the film is an undeniable commercial catastrophe—so spectacular that Warner Bros.’ top film executives lost their jobs in the immediate aftermath.

That, however, is just the movie’s commercial reception. Its critical reception tells a far more complicated story—or perhaps several competing stories.